Monday, July 07, 2008

Inter-Church Communication

As a long time member of the church of Christ, I can say that one of our tenants or main features is how each and every congregation is independent of the others. We have no church hierarchy and we have no standard of belief other than the Bible. This has allowed the church to both emulate the 'New Testament model' and build leadership in every location.

Unfortunately this has also created self-sufficient environments that can become somewhat isolated from others. The church that I regularly attend is undergoing a remodeling project and is meeting elsewhere in the afternoon. My wife and I decided to attend an extremely close congregation this week that we have passed on the road many times, but never been to. I am astonished to find a very nice group of people that I have never met. Astonished is a strong word, but many people there had never heard of my congregation, and I would guess less than 5 or 10 percent of my congregation had ever heard of them.

It certainly seems like we could get together in a collaborative service effort or even an ice cream social more often and get exposure to more sides of our faith in the same town...